It’s been a couple of weeks since Issue 3 of Shiny New Books went live, so I thought I’d highlight the other fiction reviews I wrote for it to you – I hope you’ll click through to read the whole pieces… At the moment, we’re busy putting together our Christmas special which will be out Read More
A clever parody or a triumph of style over substance?
Horrorstör by Grady Hendrix A couple of weeks ago, I got inordinately excited when this book I’d ordered arrived. For all its faults, IKEA is the booklover’s friend. Affordable shelving, in practical and/or posher versions, is what the bibliomane needs (I’m speaking as a 10x Billy owner here – I can construct those boys at Read More
"This ain't no upwardly mobile freeway … This is the road to hell"
The A26 by Pascal Garnier Quite a few bloggers (notably Stu and recently Guy) have already discovered and loved the novels of Pascal Garnier, the French author of some decidedly bleak, black comedies of the purest noir! Having acquired a couple of them, I picked his short novel The A26 to begin my own exploration. Set in Read More
Looking for 'Chap Last'
Thinkless by Sophie McCook It’s not often that I respond to a direct request from an author to review their book, but Sophie McCook wrote me a lovely note and she and her book sounded worth investigating. Thinkless comes from small publisher Limehouse Books in London, and Sophie who is based in Scotland has written for Read More
A Weekend Miscellany…
Apparently it is #ArchiveDay today. I don’t know who has designated it such – but twitter is alive with tweets to good folks’ archives – so I shall highlight my three most viewed posts since starting this blog – and an odd collection they make too: ‘Fashion! Turn to the Left. Fashion! Turn to the Read More
784 pages – Was it worth taking the time to read…
The Goldfinch by Donna Tartt It’s very likely that had our bookgroup not picked this novel, that The Goldfinch would have stayed on my shelves, unread, (beside Wolf Hall and The Luminaries), for much longer. I had to read it (well, I could have cribbed notes but didn’t), but I’m so glad I took the time Read More
5 Characters in Search of a Theme Song
Love, Love Me Do by Mark Haysom Looking at the title and cover of this book, I was expecting something light-hearted, a little bit sixties rock’n’roll, a bit Nick Hornby-ish if you will – and involving a caravan. Well the last bit was right, less so the others. The title, that of the Beatles’ first Read More
My new reviews at Shiny New Books
The third issue of Shiny New Books came out on Monday. Now it’s time for me to highlight some of my reviews that appear therein and point you in their direction. As it ended up, I didn’t write as many reviews for this edition, but I shall still split them into a few posts in Read More
Now it's Sylvia's turn
The Bell Jar by Sylvia Plath Yesterday I reviewed a new YA novel by Meg Wolitzer called Belzhar (here), in which a depressed young woman was helped back to good health by a special English class that studied Sylvia Plath’s novel The Bell Jar and then kept rather special personal journals. Reading this book made Read More
My Name's Going to Mars!
If you’d like your name to go on the Orion test flight at the beginning of December and to collect frequent flyer miles on subsequent NASA missions – head over here. Such fun!
A novel of fragile youth and Sylvia Plath…
Belzhar by Meg Wolitzer Meg Wolitzer is best known for her quirky feminist novels about gender politics. I admit I’ve not read any of them, although the comedy aspects of her novel The Position appeal, in which a couple’s children discover that their parents are the creators of a sex manual featuring themselves, this event having Read More
Issue 3 of Shiny New Books is here!
This morning, my fellow eds and I are proud to publish the third issue of Shiny New Books. As of yesterday (although that may have changed by the time this post goes live), it includes 85 book reviews and 16 BookBuzz articles and interviews. 101 pages feels good! Thank you very much to all our contributors, Read More
I get inside the Groucho Club (briefly)!
Just under a month ago, I blogged about the crowd-funding publisher Unbound and how much I was enjoying pledging my pennies towards getting books published – being a ‘Book Angel’ definitely appeals to me. (Incidentally, I’ve just done Spotlight on Publishing article with Unbound which will be in the new edition of Shiny New Books Read More
Irresistible Incoming!
When I saw this book online, I *HAD* to have it! My copy arrived today. It’s a novel, but also a triumph of a design parody – all the way through the book. I’m not going to tell you what it’s about though – that can wait until my review – but here’s the cover! Read More
Romance in a Paris Cinema – a feelgood recipe for success?
The Secret Paris Cinema Club by Nicholas Barreau Although I rarely read full-on romance novels, I couldn’t resist this one. It has all the feelgood ingredients one could ask for – an old cinema, a beautiful woman in a red coat, a classic boy meets girl/loses girl/finds girl (one hopes) romance – and it is Read More
A Walk Among the Tombstones: Book v Film
The recently released movie A Walk Among the Tombstones starring Liam Neeson is based upon the 10th in the series of Matt Scudder books by Lawrence Block. I’ve read the first twelve – and have enjoyed them all, with a few more still to read one of these days. I read this back in 2006, and Read More
My Fantasy Book Group
Eric over at Lonesome Reader recently posted his fantasy book group – “people who aren’t authors themselves but individuals in the media who are known to have a serious intellectual side to them.” Several of Eric’s choice have written books, but aren’t necessarily best known for that – so there’s flexibility there. I couldn’t resist thinking Read More
Now We Are Six…
As much as I’d like to tell you this post is about A.A.Milne’s charming book of poetry for children – it isn’t! It’s about something much closer to my heart, for it was six years ago today that I dipped my toe into the book-blogging world. It’s gone so quickly! (On other days I might Read More
A Comic Caper of Camelot and Cross-purposes…
The Table of Less Valued Knights by Marie Phillips I read Marie Phillips first novel, Gods Behaving Badly, an hilarious story of the Greek gods and goddesses living out their lives in modern day North London, pre-blog, and I loved it – I can remember that without having to go back to my records. These bickering Read More
Mothers and Daughters again…
Clara’s Daughter by Meike Ziervogel The relationships between mothers and daughters, or daughters and their mothers – whichever way around you want to put it, is obviously something that fascinates Meike Ziervogel. Her first novella, published away from her own Peirene publishing house was also about a mother and daughter, and the daughter’s own daughter. Read More
Getting all bound up…
Crowd-funding is beginning to really take off in the world of publishing… The wonderful indie publisher And Other Stories have sort of been doing it for ages based upon a subscription model. You subscribe and get your name printed in the back of the books produced over your subscription period, plus a copy of the Read More
Very telling – a DNF
I still don’t like it when I give up on a book, but it’s finally getting home to me that even though I have taken hundreds of books to charity shops this summer, I’ll never get through the remaining books I have, let alone all the new ones I keep acquiring. I’m starting to be able Read More
They were soldiers…
All Quiet on the Western Front by Erich Maria Remarque Translated by Brian Murdoch This remarkable novel about young German soldiers in WWI was our book group’s read for August; I had pushed strongly for a WWI-related choice for the month of the 100th anniversary of the war’s start. Several of us had already read Read More
DVD Review – The Coen Brothers do the 1960s folk music scene…
Inside Llewyn Davis by the Coen Brothers I’ve been taking advantage of my daughter being on holiday with her Dad to catch up on TV and movies. I binge-watched Broadchurch (loved) and The Honorable Woman (good, but confusing and irritating), but finished my week by watching the Coen Brother’s latest movie from earlier this year on Read More
Cover Art – The Vivisector by Patrick White
My late Mum had several books by English-born Australian author Patrick White in her collection which I later inherited. All were ex-library copies, well-used, covered in stamps and flyleafs cut out, so once I decided I would never get around to reading them (they look challenging reads), out they went – but I saved the Read More
The myth of Izanami and Izanagi
This post was republished into my blog’s timeline from my lost posts archive. The Goddess Chronicle by Natsuo Kirino Translated by Rebecca Copeland My most recent reading of the Canongate Myths series (which now has its own page above) fits in nicely with Women In Translation Month, hosted by Biblibio. I’ve yet to read one Read More
The first in an Italian trilogy…
My Brilliant Friend by Elena Ferrante Translated by Ann Goldstein I came to reading this book, the first volume in Ferrante’s Neapolitan Trilogy, with more than a little trepidation. Firstly I have only heard good things about it, so I was hoping that it would live up to its reputation. Secondly, my only previous experience of Read More
The world of espionage is a different place now…
The Director by David Ignatius It’s a while since I’ve read a spy novel set inside the various American intelligence agencies, and they make the British MI5 and MI6 seem totally straight-forward in their organisation of roles and responsibilities in comparison. This novel is set mainly in the CIA, an independent agency, which itself has many Read More
Words On Rainy Days
I know you all enjoy a bit of wordplay? I certainly do, and while reviewing my reference shelves I rediscovered a paperback that will definitely stay there rather than be consigned to the charity shop pile. It’s The Wordsworth Book of Intriguing Words, subtitled The Insomniac’s Dictionary, by Paul Hellweg and originally published in 1986. It’s Read More
Would you do this on holiday?
Lazy Days by Erlend Loe Translated by Don Bartlett and Don Shaw. With its irresistible cover I was always going to pick this book up to examine it. I read the blurb on the flyleaf and discovered that the author, new to me, was Norwegian, and that the book was likely to be quirky and probably Read More
